The election of 1852 taught the founders of the Confederate States of
America two things. First and foremost, the electoral college system
of the old Constitution was totally broken, and subject to crass
corruption in the case of any substantial crisis. Second, the popular
vote could not be used to elect truly great leaders; look who the
North had elected, after all.

Thus, the CSA Constitution had the President elected in the first
session of a newly seated Senate every six years, and the
Vice-President elected in the House. Although the Confederate founders
hoped to end party divisions, the system effectively worked thus: your
vote for Senator was also your vote for President. 

Since Presidents can only serve one six-year term in their lifetimes,
Robert Toombs had suggested as his successor a close friend who was
politically opposed to him on almost every issue, an up-and-coming
Senator from Georgia named Alexander Stevens. Unfortunately, with the
Confederacy in the throes of the Panic of 1856, the administration was
not very popular among the people, and thus many of its former
supporters had been replaced by either hard-liners in the deep South
or liberals from the old border states. Strong as he still was, Toombs
could not muster a majority in the Senate at will.

Stevens, furthermore, had no less than four rivals for the votes of
twenty-six men. General Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Governor
Sterling Price of Missouri both had significant support, newspaper
publisher Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina had that state's two
votes in the bag, and former governor William Quitman of Mississippi
had a few votes from those senators, like newly elected Gideon Pillow
of Tennessee, who wanted to deny Jeff Davis the election at all costs.

Speeches are made, and ballot after ballot is cast, and February 23
ends with none of the five candidates gaining a clear majority. The
eleventh ballot, taken first thing on the 24th, runs:

ALEXANDER STEVENS - 9 (LA X 2, GA X 1, VA X 2, NC X 2, FL X 2)
JEFFERSON DAVIS - 5 (MS X 1, KY X 1, TN X 1, AR X 2)
STERLING PRICE - 4 (MO X 2, KS X 1, KY X 1)
ROBERT BARNWELL RHETT - 4 (SC X 2, MS X 1, AL X 1)
WILLIAM QUITMAN - 3 (TN X 1, KS X 1, AL X 1)
ABSTAIN - 1 (GA X 1) (this is Sen. Stevens himself)

After the eleventh ballot, Stevens decided to withdraw his name from
consideration. However, not only did he believe in the right of people
to vote their conscience, he had no favorite among the remaining four.
Quitman and Rhett were both ultras, directly opposed to Stevens'
personal political beliefs. Davis was a moderate, but he was incapable
of differentiating political dissent from personal attack; he would be
a disastrous President. Finally there was Sterling Price, whom Stevens
regarded as too dissolute and incompetent to hold office. Thus,
Stevens did not name any alternate, and the twelfth ballot came down
as:

JEFFERSON DAVIS - 9 (NC X 1, LA X 2, MS X 1, KY X 1, TN X 1, AR X 2,
VA X 1)
STERLING PRICE - 6 (NC X 1, MO X 2, KS X 1, KY X 1, GA X 1)
ROBERT BARNWELL RHETT - 5 (SC X 2, MS X 1, AL X 1, FL X 1)
WILLIAM QUITMAN - 5 (TN X 1, KS X 1, AL X 1, VA X 1, FL X 1)
ABSTAIN - 1 (GA X 1) (Stevens)

The two votes which followed, after more speeches, did not change
these numbers. With fourteen votes needed for election, the issue
seemed hopeless. Neither Quitman nor Rhett, both of whom were in
Richmond at the time, would yield to the other due to ambition. Price,
who was serving as governor of South Missouri, represented the
liberals in the Senate, and would not be yielded up by them. With
these conditions, the frontrunner, Jefferson Davis, could not win the
five votes he needed to win. (1)

The Senate dissolved angrily after a token resolution of
congratulations to the newly elected Vice President, Senator
Breckenridge of Kentucky. That evening, with scarcely a week before
inauguration, the lone abstainer Stevens met with a handful of
Congressmen in a room at the Powhatan Hotel. 

The exact number of men present is not recorded, but the principal men
present were Stevens, Senator Judah Benjamin of Louisiana, Senator R.
M. T. Hunter of Virginia, Congressman (and former US President) John
Tyler of Virginia, and Governor Henry Wise of Virginia. These
principals are recorded because it was Wise who crashed the party, so
to speak, to suggest a dark horse to break the deadlock: Robert Edward
Lee.

Lee, like Davis, had seen his share of setbacks during the war.
However, unlike Davis, Lee enjoyed good health, good relations with
virtually everyone he worked with, and a popularity from his former
soldiers bordering on worship. Finally, he was a political unknown:
the public knew him as the defender of Virginia and the victor over
the Cheyenne and Commanche in Kansas, but he had no ties at all to the
political set. He could be everything to everybody. 

Judah Benjamin, who had been part of the Cabinet before his election
to the Senate, had had dealings with Lee, as had Stevens. Both
considered the quiet, withdrawn warrior a sound leader, but Stevens
wanted to make sure Lee would be willing to stand for election. A
telegram was hurriedly sent off to Alexandria and Arlington, where Lee
was currently on leave from the Confederate army attempting to rebuild
his father-in-law's debt-riddled estate as executor of his will.

The answer came back via telegram at 10 AM next morning, as the
fourteenth ballot came in without any significant changes. 

HON. SENATOR ALEXANDER STEPHENS

SIR-

I SHALL FULFILL MY DUTY TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CONFEDERACY AND TO THE
SOVREIGN STATE OF VIRGINIA IN WHATEVER CAPACITY MY SERVICES SHALL BE
REQUIRED.

R. E. LEE

With the telegram in his hands, Stevens came off the absention list
and entered Lee's name into nomination; R. M. T. Hunter is recorded as
the official second, and a new ballot was called immediately.

The change was, put mildly, profound.

ROBERT E. LEE - 9 (VA X 2, KS X 2, LA X 1, GA X 2, AL X 1, FL X 2)
JEFFERSON DAVIS - 7 (NC X 1, LA X 1, MS X 1, KY X 1, TN X 1, AR X 2)
ROBERT BARNWELL RHETT - 4 (SC X 2, MS X 1, AL X 1)
STERLING PRICE - 4 (NC X 1, MO X 2,  KY X 1)
WILLIAM QUITMAN - 1 (TN X 1)

Quitman, with only one supporter, was dropped from the ballot, and
while Judah Benjamin stepped out to make another quick telegram, a new
ballot was immediately called. The sixteenth vote came out as:

ROBERT E. LEE - 12 (VA X 2, KS X 2, TN X 1, GA X 2, AL X 1, FL X 2, NC
X 2)
JEFFERSON DAVIS - 6 (LA X 1, MS X 1, KY X 1, TN X 1, AR X 2)
ROBERT BARNWELL RHETT - 4 (SC X 2, MS X 1, AL X 1)
STERLING PRICE - 3 (MO X 2,  KY X 1)
ABSENT - 1 (LA X 1 - Benjamin)

When Benjamin returned, he proposed that the Senate adjourn for lunch,
and after surprisingly bitter debate (led by the South Carolinians)
the measure was passed. As things stood, on the upcoming seventeenth
ballot Lee would have thirteen votes, adding Benjamin's, and while the
Davis and Price supporters wavered, Rhett's men wanted to make that
last mad rush for support to deny Lee the victory.

While the South Carolina delegation scrambled for support, Stephens
and Benjamin worked smoothly towards another goal. Seeing Lee's
initial strength, both men decided independently that they wanted to
secure not just victory, but unanimity for Lee's election. Benjamin's
telegram was returned about 1 PM, indicating Davis' willingness to
step aside for Lee (2), whom he had known at West Point and in both
USA and CSA armies. Some concilatory words from Stephens persuaded the
Missouri delegation, now virtually alone, to withdraw their
favorite-son nomination of Sterling Price.

At 2 PM, while Benjamin and Stevens returned to the Senate chamber
much enthused, the South Carolinians entered the chamber exhausted and
sullen. When Benjamin announced the withdrawal of Davis, and Stephens
that of Price, Rhett's last core supporters acknowledged defeat, and
Senator Yancey of Alabama was the man who moved that Lee be elected
unanimously, without objection, on the seventeenth ballot.

The following March 4, 1860, Robert Edward Lee was sworn into office
as the second President of the Confederacy. 

The best performance of the Presidential candidates of 1859/60 in the
seventeen ballots:

LEE - 26 on 17th ballot, nominated on 15th ballot
STEPHENS - 11 on 2nd ballot, nominated on 1st ballot, resigned after
11th
DAVIS - 9 on 12th ballot, nominated on 1st ballot, resigned after 16th
RHETT - 6 on 1st ballot, nominated on 1st ballot
PRICE - 6 on 12th ballot, nominated on 1st ballot, resigned after 16th
QUITMAN - 5 on 12th ballot, nominated on 4th ballot, removed after
15th
FAVORITE SON NOMINATIONS: N. B. FORREST (2 votes on 1st, 3rd ballots),
P. G. T. BEAUREGARD (2 votes on 1st), JOHN BELL (1 vote on 2nd ballot)



(1) In any case, Davis was much more talented at making enemies than
friends; most of those supporting Rhett and Quitman would have voted
for a pink elephant before Jeff Davis.

(2) Davis had not sought the nomination, but in the tradition of
noblesse oblige he had not declined it either. The phrasing of
Benjamin's telegram- would he support Lee if the latter were elected-
allowed Davis an escape he personally desired. 1852 had soured him on
politics so badly that, in 1860, he had no intention at all of seeking
political office again. That attitude would change strongly after six
years of Lee as President, although once in office Davis would get to
see for himself how much sense Lee actually made.